It’s easy for us to take our shoulders for granted until we injure one of them and can’t do our favorite activities, like…
…and…
…and…
As a chiropractor for shoulder pain, I know how it can interfere with the most mundane of activities, like brushing our teeth and getting dressed, to the ones that make life worth living, like:
Sometimes, those Target prices seem too good to be true!
Our shoulders are incredibly complex systems of bones, joints, connective tissues, and muscles. It’s an intricate web allowing the shoulder to get into more than 1,600 positions. Twister’s got nothing on a healthy shoulder.
But, this extreme mobility makes the shoulder vulnerable to injury as it attempts to balance mobility and stability. Chronic shoulder pain is the most commonly reported upper extremity injury in athletes, professionals, and weekend warriors alike.
No shoulder injury is more famous than a torn rotator cuff. It’s the queen of shoulder injuries, whomever your queen may be…
The rotator cuff connects the upper arm to the shoulder blade, providing stability and allowing the shoulder to rotate. This collection of tendons and muscles keeps the arm in its socket and allows us to rotate and lift our arm. So, all in all, a pretty important part of our body that, if torn, can really ruin a perfectly good summer.
An injury can occur from a variety of activities like:
A rotator cuff tear can even be blamed on the natural wear and tear of aging. Not that anyone here is aging…
Knowing we have an injury is crucial to getting the rotator cuff pain relief we need to move on with our lives.
Common Rotator Cuff Symptoms
- Pain at rest and at night
- Pain or weakness when lifting and lowering the arm
- Crepitus, the grating sound or sensation of bone and cartilage rubbing together
- Frozen shoulder
- Subacromial bursitis, the inflammation of the bursa in the shoulder
- Tendonitis
Early identification and treatment of injuries are critical to quickly returning to a regular routine.
The “walk it off!” strategy rarely ever works and actually leads to more serious problems down the road. Plus, it sounds like something from a 2006 movie, and we don’t really want to go back to that, do we? In my experience, doctors are eager to pump patients with steroid injections or recommend a cool surgery so they can feel like they’re on staff at Seattle Grace. But with these eight shoulder pain treatments, there is no need to be poked, prodded, and cut open.
Natural Treatments for Rotator Cuff Pain
Ice
Ice reduces inflammation and swelling, making it great to have around after an injury. Inflammation is the source of all diseases in the body and needs to be reduced for healing to occur.
Rest
Rest can mean sleep, and we love it when it does, but it can also mean taking a break from the activity that caused the injury in the first place. Don’t be a hero. A rotator cuff tear can get bigger and more inflamed over time, even if there isn’t an increase in pain if we don’t give it the chance to heal.
Deep Tissue Laser
Exactly.
Actually, this high-tech wonder stimulates healing at a cellular level. It works just like the sun and plants, reducing inflammation and triggering new cell growth to speed up healing and shorten recovery times.
Heat
Like the black and white cookie or Regis and Kathie Lee, ice and heat are a duo that changed the course of history. Heat is best used in situations of chronic shoulder pain to improve blood flow to a particular area. Blood is great because it brings nutrients integral to the healing process.
Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Drugs like ibuprofen can reduce pain and swelling, but they’re synthetic and can damage other organs that you might* need later. (*You will definitely need them). Food is a great way to reduce inflammation in the body and speed up healing. Plus, food tastes much better than some pill they cooked up in a factory.
- Green leafy vegetables
- Bok choy
- Celery
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Blueberries
- Pineapple
- Salmon
- Bone Broth
- Walnuts
- Coconut oil
- Chia seeds
- Flaxseeds
- Turmeric
- Ginger
These foods aren’t just great for shoulder pain relief; they’re great for all pain relief. They’re also premium fuel for our bodies to function at their best. No one is putting unleaded in their Benz, so why would we put it in our body?
Essential Oils
They may seem sticky or hippy-dippy, but essential oils are incredible natural painkillers. Peppermint oil helps relax muscles and makes our shoulders very kissable. Arnica, primrose, and lavender oils are other effective anti-inflammatory topicals that help ease muscle tension that leads to shoulder pain.
Strengthening Exercises and Stretches
No shoulder pain relief plan is complete without exercises to strengthen the muscles that stabilize the shoulders and relieve tension to improve mobility. Improved flexibility, range of motion, and strengthening exercises will provide relief and prevent additional injuries. It’s all prevention!
Acupuncture
It’s probably the oldest strategy on this list.
Excuse me, wisest and most experienced.
Acupuncture stimulates healing and reduces pain by harnessing the energy of the body. It’s more than just a placebo effect, as determined in a study by Memorial Sloan-Kettering. They found acupuncture effective for treating chronic pain conditions like back and neck pain, arthritis, chronic headaches, and shoulder pain.
Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)
TENS uses electrical impulses to reduce pain signals traveling through the spinal cord and brain, relieving pain and relaxing muscles. These currents can also stimulate endorphin production, the body’s natural painkiller.
Chiropractic Care
Many people think chiropractors are only good for back and neck pain. We are good at natural pain relief and optimizing the nervous system for the best function and effective healing, but that also pertains to shoulder pain. (Many other things too, but I digress.)
Chiropractic care helps balance the musculoskeletal system to prevent pain and injuries and speed up the body’s natural healing process. It also works wonders at improving posture, which is a leading cause of shoulder pain.
Before turning to pills, needles, or scalpels for shoulder pain relief, give us a call or schedule a time to meet with one of our amazing doctors. Our goal is to get the body working like it’s supposed to so our patients can live the lives they were meant to. With faster recovery times and less invasive procedures, we can tailor a shoulder pain treatment plan to each patient’s unique situation and get them doing cartwheels down Main Street in no time.
Or something like that.
